Shekalim 5:1 - 5:2

אלו הן הממונים – fifteen kinds of officers and appointment to authority that are considered in our Mishnah were the daily offering in the Temple. However, these men that are considered were not at the same time, but the pious and the worthy in each generation he would appoint. But my teachers explained on account that the first appointees were appointed for this – thus this was their names. Therefore, the ones who came after them were called by their name

על החותמות ועל הסלתות – it will be explained further in our Mishnah.

על הפייסות – to teach the order of the lottery, who will merit with this service, and whom with that, as is explained in the Tractate Yoma (see Chapter 2, Mishnayot 1-4).

על הקינים – those lacking atonement such as the man and/or a woman with a flux and a woman who just gave birth bring obligatory bird-offerings which are doves and pigeons – they put their monies in the shofar-shaped [chests] that are in the Temple. But those who are appointed over the shofar-shaped [chests] take the money and bring through them the bird-offerings, and someone who was wise, great in knowledge and a specialist had to be appointed, as we state in Tractate Avot (Chapter 3, Mishnah 18).

שהיה פותח דברים וכו' – This is Mordecai Bilshan that came up [to the land of Israel] from the Diaspora, and he is called this because he mixed up many languages.

על חולי מעים – because the Kohanim walk barefoot on the floor and eat a lot of meat and drink water, their intestines were ruined and they always needed a doctor to tell them: this is the good medication for the intestines.

חופר שיחין – he was appointed to dig cisterns, pits and caves, in order that water would be found to drink for those who come up [to Jerusalem] on the Pilgrimage Festivals.

גביני כרוז – that was his name of the man who would announce each morning in the Temple: “Arise, O Priests, to your Divine Service” and they would hear his voice from Jericho.

על נעילת שערים – to lock the gates in the evening and to open them in the morning.

על הפקיע – to whip the Kohanim and Levites that were found to be sleeping during their watches when they would guard the Temple at night, as we say in Tractate [Middot] (see Chapter 1, Mishnah 2, where it states that would use a stick – and not necessarily a strip of leather/strap used as a whip), whomever they would find sleeping they would beat him and burn his clothing. But in the Jerusalem Talmud, they would explain that he stripped the wicks of the Menorah and of the House of Water Drawing as we state in [Tractate Sukkah], the chapter “The flute-playing” (chapter 5) [Talmud Sukkah 51b -see Mishnah 3] – “from the warn-out pants and girdles of the Kohanim, they made wicks [and would kindle them].

צלצל – a musical instrument that has a large sound, from the language תצילנה אזניו/it will be a loud shriek in his ears, “cymbal” in the foreign language.

בית גרמו – the name of a family.

על לחם הפנים – that would be made something like a breached chest and they were artisans in his action and in his baking to detach it from the oven so that it would not break and to make it so that it would not grow moldy.

בית אבטינס – the name of a family that were experts in mixing the incense and they recognized a certain grass whose name was a smoke-raiser (name of a plant) and when they would mix it with the spices of the incense, the smoke of the incense would rise straight up like a stick.

על הפרכות – to make new hangings when they were needed.

המלביש – he was appointed to dress the Kohanim at the time of the Divine Service and to undress them after their service, and to preserve the priestly garments in the compartments that were designed for this.

גזברים – they are those under whose control are the sacred property of the Temple, and they redeem the valuation/assessment due of a person or animal dedicated to the Temple and the property set apart for the Temple’s usage and that which is sacred property of the Temple and all of the holy tasks that are performed through them.

אמרכלין – they are higher than the treasurers and (Numbers 3:32): “The head chieftain of the Levites [was Eleazar son of Aaron the priest, in charge of those attending to the duties of the sanctuary],” which we translate [in Aramaic] as "ואמרכלין דממנא" and the language "אמרכל" - “he stated over everything,” and in Arabic we call him “Amir.” What did the seven officers/אמרכלין do? Seven keys of the courtyard were in their hands. If one of them wanted to open it up, he could not until all of them entered in together and the treasurers coming after them would open it and remove whatever they needed. And another level above that of the אמרכלין/officer/trustees (superintending the cashiers) was there, which was not mentioned in the Mishnah and it is brought in the Tosefta (Chapter 2, Halakha 15 – Lieberman edition), and they are two financial officers/controllers ("קתילוקין" ) and there were found five levels there: The High Priest, his assistant, the financial controllers, the trustees, treasurers.

ואין עושין שררה פחות משנים – as it is written (Exodus 28:5): “they, therefore shall receive the gold, [the blue, purple, and crimson yarns and the fine linen]”; the least of many is two.